August

I got around to fitting the new battery in the
van.
It then started right up :o)

I also fitted the reed block that I picked up on eBay, and the carb to the
YSR
that I'm supposed to be finishing up for Jason. Getting there :o)

I spent some time playing
World of Warcraft.
I managed to get my
warrior
up to level 67.

August 28th

I finally went and got a new battery for the
van.
The stock battery is a type 41, and the battery that had been in there was a type 91. The type 91 is hard
to get hold of, so I ended up with a type 48... it's better than the 41 and just a bit taller. Now I just
need to get the energy to fit it, as I'm still sick :o(

I spoke to Don in the morning, and I explained the trouble I'd been having with the
van
battery, and not knowing how to test it, seeing as it seemed to be holding it's voltage. He suggested
trying to start the engine while watching the voltage. Genius! It dropped to about 10V, so I'm pretty
sure it's shagged.

August 25th

I still wasn't feeling that well, so I just hung around the house in the morning. In
the afternoon, Vic had her
hang gliding
lesson.

August 22nd

I'm still unwell, but short Kleenex - it's moving into more of a cough.

August 21st

Still not feeling great. I don't even have the energy to play
World of Warcraft.
I did work though. It's easier than figuring out the process for taking a day off sick :o)

August 20st

I'd been feeling a bit off over the weekend, so I woke up with a stinking cold :o(
Go and buy stocks in Kleenex and whoever makes Lemsip.

August 19th

Vic was at work, so I wasted the day watching TV. I cycled over to pick up the
Subaru
and a couple of guinea pigs, then drove back to collect the bike.

I did get around to looking at the main battery in the
van,
as it was too dead to power up the clock in the dash, let alone start the engine. It's now sitting in the
van waiting for me to get it tested to see if it's really dead. I had planned to put the auxiliary battery in
it's place, but it looks like I need to remove the driver's seat to get it out, and then again to put a new
battery back in. I'm too lazy for that.

August 18th

I started the day by waking up far too early (jet lag, don'tchyaknow) and getting my bags
all unpacked and sorted out. I caught up on some of the stuff the TiVo'd recorded, then headed for the
SPCA
for a spell walking dogs, but I ended up doing adoption counselling the whole time I was there.

In the evening, we went for a leaving party for Heather, the SPCA's volunteer co-ordinator.

August 17th

I got up ridonculously early, and headed for the airport to get home. Luckily, you do all
the customer and immigration stuff in Canadia, as there's no way I'd have managed a 49 minute layover in
Chicago otherwise. The flight was late leaving Ottawa, but luckily so was everything else. And my itinerary
was wrong about needing to change terminals, so it was a shuffle down the C concourse.

Vic picked me up at the airport - we got home and I pretty much passed out :o)

Still in the hotel, and playing
World of Warcraft.
I managed to get my
warrior
up to level 64, and clear out a group quest in Silithus I've had since level 60. Solo :o)

I was walking to Subway to get lunch, and 2 cars travelling the same way on a dead straight piece of road managed
to crash into each other. All I heard was the screech of tyres and the bang of the collision. It's nice to see
that California hasn't cornered the market in brain dead cagers :o) There was an ambulance just up the road, so
he pulled in quickly, and when I'd got my sandwich, 2 fire engines showed up. I stood and waited for the lights
to change so I could cross, and still have no idea how it could possibly have happened. Maybe the straight bit
tightens up a bit there, or something?

August 11th

I was up pretty early, and read my mail and watched TV until it was a decent hour to call
Vic.
I spent the rest of day in the hotel trying to play
World of Warcraft
on the awful internet connection, watching TV, reading and sleeping. It was actually quite relaxing, after the
stress and aggravation of the week.

August 10th

Back in the office. Everybody else went home, leaving me with these weird folk, eh. Spencer took me out for
poutine
for lunch. It's a local delicacy that can harden the arteries at 10 paces. It's pretty good :o)

Yves brought in a selection of Canadian cake type things, like swiss rolls and Jaffa cakes, but Canadian. I'm
working my way through them :o)

In the evening, I watched some TV and played a little
World of Warcraft
before having an early night. A week of getting to bed late and getting up early is taking its toll on me :o(

August 9th

Back in the office again, I wasted an afternoon in meetings (none of us is as stupid as all
of us). In the evening, there was another dinner for everybody, by the bigass canal that runs through Ottawa.
It was quite pleasant.

August 8th

Back in the office, the high point was a pizza lunch for the whole company. Dave and I had
expressed an interest in
these,
so we got to play with one for the afternoon. They're OK, once you boot it into "real" mode, rather than the
Mickey Mouse GUI that it comes with.

August 7th

We drove to the Xandros office, and met everybody. It's weird working in an office again, as
I've been working at home now for over 6 years. After work, we had a team meal in Ottawa central, and that went off
just fine. The CEO dropped us back at the hotel, and we hit the bar again.

August 6th

I got up ridonculouslly early, and Vic dropped me at the airport to fly to Canadia, eh. The
security line went right the way down the terminal, then right the way back up. Then upstairs, and right the way
out to the car park, and back. And then through security where somebody with the IQ of a spoon watched everybody
taking their shoes off, and unpacking their laptops. I feel so much safer.

We landed in Ottawa 15 minutes early, then got to wait 15 minutes for the ground crew to get off their cigarette
break and wave the plane in. Dave picked me up at the baggage carousel, and we waited a short while for Karl to
land from San Francisco.

The hotel was nice enough, with an attached Irish bar, meaning I can spend the week drinking Strongbow.

August 5th

We were still camping in the
van
up in Truckee. We took another quad ride with Fred, only managing to get a little stuck once. After getting
back to the camp, we packed everything up and headed home. The van actually did pretty well, I think.

August 4th

We were camping in the
van
up in Truckee. We started the day going for a quad ride with Fred and Ray (Vic rode, I passengered),
to see the whole site. Later on, we scorched dead flesh, and played some games :o)

August 3rd

After work, we took the
van
up to Truckee, to camp with Fred and Marsha. We got there early enough that we could have dinner and
play some games before bed.

I managed to get bitten by something, and my hand swelled up a ridiculous amount. A few anti-histamine
tablets should help that.

August 1st

I'd been intending to go to
the airfield
and get the
Rans
out for the first time in a while, so I set off right after work. I cut
through a little housing development, only to find the road out of the
side was closed. There was a detour sign, which I followed,
thinking that I didn't remember another way out to the North. I was
right, it would have actually have
been quicker to turn round where I was and go back. So, let's try the
other way. Oh, Fiddyment is now
called Orchard Way there, and the road's closed. Ha! They must have
opened the new part of the road I've
been watching them build for months. I drove the
van
up to the lights, to see that I could now turn right. Onto a closed road >:o(
I ended up turning around and heading back to the freeway to get to Lincoln. I wouldn't mind, but my 20
minute journey took closer to an hour because of this... meaning that by the time I'd swept the cobwebs
off (the spiders have been going crazy this year, everywhere, not just at the airfield), and done my
preflight, I'd have just enough time for one circuit. Screw that. I tidied the plane up, and headed
home. I did get to meet the temporary tenant, with his motorglider. I managed to not make a snarky
comment about our ultralights being jammed up against the wall so he could take his plane straight out,
as apparently he's going to be gone in a few weeks.

I've been thinking about adding weight to the plane, to make it more stable on landing. I finally figured
that the easiest way to do that would be to fill it up with fuel, rather than leave it half empty like I
usually do. We'll see if that helps, if I ever get to fly again.